Nora Hulse is a former professor of keyboard studies at Central Methodist College, Fayette, MO and is now devoting her time to collecting, researching, performing and recording piano ragtime composed by women.   She received her basic piano and organ training by her mother in Clay Center, KS.   In the 1960s she moved to Columbia, MO and received her Ph.D from the University of Missouri in 1988.

She was introduced to Ragtime in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and at one time performed at Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Columbia, MO with her husband, Mark on banjo.   She performs ragtime regularly on the live KOMU-TV talk show, "Pepper and Friends," appears with her Roundhouse Rascals Dixieland Band, The Turpin Tyme Ragsters, and Ragtime Razz Matazz piano/banjo duo with her husband, Mark.

Ragtime performances include the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, MO; James Scott Ragtime Festival, Carthage, MO; West Coast Ragtime Festival, Sacramento; Ragtime in Randall (Iowa); Ragtime for Tulsa Foundation; Classic Ragtime Society of Indianapolis, Indiana; the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, St. Louis.

In June 2004, at Sedalia, MO, Nora received the prestigious Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Ragtime.   She has produced six CDs and four music folios of ragtime composed by women.

Mark Hulse is retired from the University of Missouri-Columbia where he was director of a research instrumentation laboratory for 40 years.   Mark's early musical experiences included playing trombone in elementary and high school bands and also the local fire house band on Long Island, New York, which was down the street from his home.   A few years later he took up the banjo, studying at the renowned Mel Bay studios in St. Louis, MO.   The late 60s and early 70s found him playing banjo and trombone several nights a week at Shakey's Pizza Parlor and at The Village Inn in Columbia, Missouri.   It was during those years that Mark and Nora met.

Mark and Nora have performed continually over the years as a banjo/piano duo and with Dixieland bands.   In recent years they have performed with the Junkyard Jazz Band and have made appearances at Jazz/4 string Banjo Festivals in Guthrie, OK and elsewhere as The Ragtime Razzmatazz Duo.